Free-agent hunt a guessing game

The Bulls will enter the free-agent market on Thursday armed with a mid-level exception worth approximately $5 million and another worth roughly $1.6 million.

The problem? So will a bunch of other teams.

General manager John Paxson, like most of his peers and several agents who were interviewed, expects a slow market, with players waiting for teams to make decisions and few long-term deals offered.

"Everybody is out there trolling for the same thing," Paxson said. "We'll express interest to select people and proceed. We don't want to spend time chasing players who aren't interested in us."

The Bulls are looking for players with size who can play both off guard and small forward, as well as reserve big men. Players who are expected to draw interest from the Bulls include Bobby Sura, Toni Kukoc, Brian Cardinal, Stephen Jackson, Anthony Peeler, Adonal Foyle and Brian Skinner.

Jackson could be priced out of the Bulls' range, because ideally, they would like to split the mid-level exception among players. Some of the dollars also could be earmarked for Lithuanian shooting guard Arvydas Macijauskas.

"We don't know what to expect because Jamal [Crawford] is our wild card," Paxson said. "We have to juggle that too."

Crawford is a restricted free agent who will draw interest, including from some teams that will pursue bigger names first and then move on to the fourth-year guard. It's possible Crawford could spurn offers and play next season on the Bulls' qualifying offer of $3.5 million before becoming an unrestricted free agent.

Layups

Eddy Curry said he plans to begin working out at the Berto Center full time, and the pace of off-season workouts is increasing. Second-round pick Chris Duhon is expected to start working out on Wednesday and first-round picks Ben Gordon and Luol Deng have told management they will be in next week. The Bulls will have a mini-camp at Berto from July 13-15. . . . Mario Austin, last year's second-round pick, has been cleared to start working out with the Bulls this week and will be on the summer-league roster.